Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a monitoring apparatus, a monitoring method, and a non-transitory computer-readable medium, and in particular to a technique for migrating monitoring between different types of monitoring apparatuses.
Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, there are device management systems that remotely monitor the operation state of a device, e.g., an image forming apparatus such as a printer or a multifunction peripheral. In the device management systems, a monitoring apparatus placed on, for example, the customer side and a central management apparatus are connected to each other via the Internet. Device data collected by the monitoring apparatus is transmitted to the central management apparatus, and the central management apparatus manages the device data in a centralized manner. The central management apparatus manages, as monitoring information, customer information, monitoring apparatus information, monitoring target information and the like in a unified manner.
There are various configurations/types of the monitoring apparatus, and the type of the monitoring apparatus is selected according to a network environment on the customer side on which a monitoring target is placed. Examples of the type of the monitoring apparatus includes a type in which the monitoring apparatus is incorporated into a device and the device directly transmits only monitoring data on the device to the central management apparatus, and a type in which monitoring data on a plurality of devices on a network is collected by a PC or another device and transmitted altogether to the central management apparatus. Furthermore, due to a difference in the connection configuration or casing properties, monitoring functions and the number of devices capable of being monitored vary between the types of the monitoring apparatuses.
Here, a change in the network environment of the customer or a change in demand for the monitoring function may require migration from an existing monitoring apparatus placed on the customer side to another different monitoring apparatus. For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2011-135552 proposes to perform safe communication between a device and a monitoring apparatus in migration from a type in which a device itself functions as a monitoring apparatus to a type in which another monitoring apparatus such as a PC is used.
Furthermore, on the central management apparatus side, an operation for changing settings with respect to the monitoring apparatus is currently performed manually. When simple migration of the monitoring apparatus is not possible due to the network environment or the number of devices that can be monitored by a monitoring apparatus that is to newly be placed, a serviceman needs to separate/integrate into a group of devices that are monitored by an existing monitoring apparatus, and register the devices again.
However, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2011-135552 neither mentions how to change settings on the central management apparatus side when changing the monitoring apparatus, nor proposes a solution for complicated and cumbersome setting change on the central management apparatus side. For example, when integrating a plurality of groups of devices to be monitored, it is necessary to consider whether or not a monitoring apparatus that is newly to be placed can monitor all devices of monitoring targets, taking into consideration not only the maximum number of the devices that can be monitored by a new monitoring apparatuses but also the network circumferences in which the devices of monitoring targets are placed. In other words, even if the condition of the maximum number of the devices that can be monitored is satisfied but the monitoring apparatus cannot communicate with all the devices, it is not possible to integrate the devices into one. Therefore, the serviceman needs to confirm the network environment of the customer and then identify devices that can be integrated.
Furthermore, the sales company/serviceman is in charge of separating the group of devices of monitoring targets and assigning them to a plurality of monitoring apparatuses, and needs to perform a troublesome operation including a confirmation operation. Although the operation is troublesome as described above, automated or semi-automated processing of migration between different types of monitoring apparatuses has not been proposed until now.